Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to imaging, and more particularly to range imaging using Lidar and stereo imagery.
Description of Related Art
Range to a specified area can be calculated using stereo imagery. With small angular separation between image capture locations, small errors in the measured angle and baseline will propagate to significant errors in the range estimate. This results in requiring a bigger angular separation to reduce the error. However, this takes longer to collect the two images. Lidar (light detection and ranging) uses laser technology to make precise distance measurements over long or short distances. One application of Lidar is the range scanner, or scanning Lidar. Lidar transceivers operate on the principle of transmitting laser light that then reflects off of a given object and returns to a Lidar receiver. The distance to an object is then determined by analyzing the laser signal through various techniques. During the scanning process, the Lidar makes repeated range measurements to objects in its path. Through repeated measurements of an object by individual laser transmissions, the shape of the object can be determined. The resulting range data is collected and serves as a rough model of the scanned area. In many applications, obtaining high-resolution, high-fidelity shape information is desirable. Physical limitations of typical range scanners constrain the maximum spatial resolution of the range data, which decreases with distance from the range scanner. At large distances, the range scanner may not be able to discern surface details of an object.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is still a need in the art for improved system that allows for range identification that reduces the timeline from stereo pair only images. The present disclosure provides a solution for this need.